Neo-stalinism?

I have tended to think of world politics as divided between the Socialists, the Totalitarians and the Liberals. Of course I have been aware of corrupt societies ... from Louisiana to Brazil and I am aware that the totalitarian "people's" state of China is corrupt.

What I had never considered is the possibility that a novel form of government my emerge from the fusion of a post totalitarian state with Mafiosa. That seems, according to the following article from the Guardian (click on title of post, to be happening in Russia.

Am I wrong or is this a new form of government? In some ways the Russian system resembles any of many societies that have become ridden by powerful warlords (pre Mao China), or businesses dominating a weak democracy (much of Latin America). Obvioulsy many African S=states have been governed for some time by criminal gangs. What seems to me to be different here is the institutional scope. If the Guardian is correct, Putin alone is arguably wealthier than Gates. BUT, where our local celebrity heads one of many world corporations, Putin heads a government and nation with resources that make Microsoft seem puny. Why does this matter? It may not matter of Bush's sole mate were simply corrupt. It does matter if he and the entity formerly known as the KGB, has invented a new for of oligarchy, enforced by private eownbershio of vast resources and the government of a World Power.

I have no good name for this new thing, but given Stalin's origins as a thug I suggest neo-Stalinism. Unlike the original Stalinism, this is not a cult of the personality. Moreover, where Stalin built no institutional mechanisms for succession, the image here is of something akin t a corporate succession where the capital is controlled by very few. Combine this concept with modern State control of the media and classical use of secret police ... we may be seeing something new,

"According to Panfilova, the "randomised" corruption of the 1990s has given way to the "systemic and institutionalised corruption" of the Putin era. Members of Putin's cabinet personally control the most important sectors of the economy - oil, gas and defence. Medvedev is chairman of Gazprom; Sechin runs Rosneft; other ministers are chairmen of Russian railways, Aeroflot, a nuclear fuel giant and an energy transport enterprise.

Putin has created a new, more streamlined oligarchy, his critics say. "The crown jewels of the country's wealth have ended up in the hands of Putin's inner circle," Vladimir Rzyhkov - a former independent MP - wrote in Monday's Moscow Times.

Belkovsky - who published a book about Putin's finances last year, and who is the director of the National Strategic Institute, a Moscow thinktank - claims he is confident of his assessment of Putin's hidden wealth. "It's not a secret among the elites,' he said. "But please pay attention that Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] has never sued me."